1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate in general to financial services. Aspects include a prepaid payment card apparatus, system, method and computer-readable medium to display a real-time prepaid payment card balance. Further aspects of the invention include a method of storing and displaying a real-time prepaid payment card balance.
2. Description of the Related Art
The traditional paper “gift-certificate” is gradually being replaced by prepaid payment cards—debit cards with a set limited value associated with a Primary Account Number (PAN). Some cards may be affiliated with a particular vendor, such as a department store, supermarket or restaurant; yet other cards may be affiliated with an acquirer, payment processor, or other issuer. Prepaid payment cards may be distributed with any dollar amount, and some prepaid cards may be replenished with additional funds.
When a consumer cardholder makes a purchase, the prepaid payment card may be used to pay for the transaction. If the purchase amount equals or exceeds the value of the prepaid payment card, the customer simply pays the excess amount using cash, credit card, or other financial instrument accepted by the vendor. However, when the purchase amount is less than the value of the prepaid payment card, the purchase price is simply subtracted from the prepaid payment card value, and a new balance remains associated with the card.
Cardholders who carry prepaid payment cards are often unaware of the balance of a prepaid payment card, especially on non-reloadable card products. While some issuer and acquirers mandate support for balance inquiries for some gift cards and incentive cards, such support is optional at merchants.
When issuers fail to support these enhancements, or when merchants do not support them, cardholders are restricted to spending the amount that is available on the card within one transaction often without knowing the balance in advance.
When issuers, acquirers, and processors do not support these enhancements at the point-of-sale, the consumer is inconvenienced, and the process breaks down. Consumer frustration is common, resulting in higher amounts of breakage (resulting in unrecognized sales volume), and alternate forms of payment being used. Worse, consumers are discouraged from purchasing more prepaid payment cards.
In the re-loadable prepaid card category, the only way a consumer can determine their card balance is by calling their card issuer/third party agent or looking up the information online.